Bills for police inquiries add up

Newton has racked up more than $170,000 in expenses related to the charges and countercharges that have flown back and forth in the police department since September 2011, when longtime secretary Jeanne Sweeney Mooney was accused of stealing cash and checks from the police station and placed on paid administrative leave.

Mooney, who was charged with larceny over $250 but acquitted this May, has alleged that she was framed in retaliation for complaints she made about then-Police Chief Matthew Cummings; Cummings was fired last year, and this March Mooney filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking more than $1.1 million in damages.

The hefty costs the city has incurred stem from Mooney’s paid leave, investigations conducted by consultants, and outside legal assistance.